Comparison and contrast are only viable concepts when two things are finite. Comparing ourselves to G_d is, not only spiritual pride, but mathematical and practical folly.
~ Makala Barnabas Doulos
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
~ Jesus, G_d of all creation, in Luke 10
Oh beloved, it is true. We have been saved by One infinitely greater than ourselves. For the problem of saving a fallen human requires an Infinite Solution.
We (who have surrendered in trust) to His work for us have found peace. For peace is the profound agreement of two parties upon a central truth. We have come to the utmost conclusion and agreement with Him, that He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. And we are, now, fully reconciled to Him in righteousness, peace, and joy – forever. This is powerful truth, and very good news.
And it is this truth that puts even the death-dealing Law of the old covenant into perspective for the believer. The Law was designed to show us our utter inability to do anything that it said, and to put our importance into perspective regarding getting ourselves into a right relationship with Him.
So, said more simply, yeah we must love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength to be saved. However, it is not the effort of loving Him this way that brings redemption. No, it is the recognition that we are the finite side of the equation, and that His is the Infinite. And that the only way to mess up the math of an infinite equation is to introduce a finite variable.
So, said even more simply, we give Him all of ourselves in recognition that our lives are really nothing of value in the equation of our salvation. In fact, anything that we “do” will simply mess things up.
Can we see it?
Salvation, and living a life of loving Him and loving others, is simply not about us. It is, rather, trustingly allowing the infinite power and goodness (read grace) of G_d to wash away our old existence and have Him replace that life with His new and abundant Life.
It does seem this is why so many of us are weak, and unable to live in victory in this world. Our lives do not seem to be making any progress in fulfilling the Great Commission of a believer. We are, in a word, “trying” to do things a human being was never Designed to do.
We do not know how to love Him.
We do not know how to love others.
We do not know how to be good.
We do not know how to bring peace to our neighbors.
We do not know how to do anything apart from Him.
And beloved, this is the very good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! He wants us to abandon any efforts to “try” to love Him with everything… And He simply wants us to come and cast ourselves in faith into His infinitely powerful care, and let Him begin to live out the impossible call through our lives – on a path He defines and defends and conquers along the way.
The call of the Gospel is, most surely, humbling. It is even called condescending by some. And this writer might agree about the condescension if he were still on the prior side of absolute surrender to Him. However, what fools like us find, is that in giving our finite lives away, we find infinite life and joy and peace in its stead. It is a life abundant beyond measure.
And dear friend, if He does not yet have all of you yet, this is simply why you are not experiencing all of Him and His infinite Love. So, there is a simple test. Have you come to agreement with Him on this one central truth? You will not have peace until you do.
Fear not. He will not fail you. Trust Him tonight!
